Establishment of split-TurboID in Plasmodium falciparum facilitates identification of a PfAlba2 protein interaction network during late blood stage development

A split-TurboID system in Plasmodium falciparum identifies 101 enriched PfAlba2 proximal proteins in schizont-stage development, linking PfAlba2 to translation initiation.

• Why it matters: Plasmodium lacks many canonical transcriptional regulators, so post-transcriptional control by RNA-binding proteins is likely crucial. PfAlba2’s interaction network and RNA associations during late blood stages were unclear.
• What they did: The authors built an endogenously tagged split-TurboID approach in Plasmodium falciparum and profiled the PfAlba2 proxiome during asexual blood stage development. They also performed RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (RIP-seq) to map PfAlba2-associated transcripts.
• The result: In schizonts, split-TurboID yielded 101 enriched PfAlba2 proximal proteins, with enrichment for translation initiation and additional Alba members PfAlba1 and PfAlba4. RIP-seq found 380 PfAlba2-associated transcripts enriched for cytosolic ribosomes, rRNA-processing factors, and egress/invasion transcripts, supporting a role in RNA metabolism and translational regulation.

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